By IANS,
Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Vinay Katiyar Friday demanded immediate withdrawal of the criminal case filed against the party’s parliamentarian Ramakant Yadav for violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district.
“The case against our MP should be withdrawn at the earliest and members of the Ulema Council must be booked for resorting to violence,” Katiyar told reporters in Ayodhya in the Faizabad district.
“Our MP has been falsely implicated in the case…in fact, in the fight for supremacy, the Ulema Council opened fire on the cavalcade of our MP and that resulted to the death of their own members,” Katiyar alleged.
Demanding arrests of the Ulema Council members, he said this was not the first time the party’s leaders were attacked. “Anti-social elements often target our leaders. Earlier it was Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur MP) and this time it’s Ramakant Yadav,” Katiyar said.
A criminal case was lodged against Yadav, MP from Azamgarh, Wednesday after a young man died in a clash between the supporters of the Ulema Council and the BJP.
The clash took place in the Phoolpur locality of the district.
“We had organised a rally in the Phoolpur locality and were heading towards the venue in cars. Those accompanying Yadav, who was in his cavalcade behind us, had a brawl with some of our supporters and members, who were walking down,” convener of the Ulema Council Maulana Amir Rashadi had said.
“Yadav’s supporters started firing indiscriminately at us, resulting in the death of a 21-year-old man, Abdul Rehman,” he claimed.
A case under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) was registered against the MP and others in the Phoolpur police station, police said.